Aug. 20, tgo4.J 
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On February 26, a detachment of Spaniards, consisting 
of two officers, with fifty dragoons and fifty mounted mili- 
tia, reached the post. The sentry halted them at a dis- 
tance of fifty yards, and Pike made preparations for their 
reception. He insisted that the Spanish troops should be 
left at some little distance from the fort, while he would 
meet the officers on the nrairie. This was done, and then 
he invited the officers to enter the fort, where he offered 
them his hospitality. It was then for the first time, Pike 
tells us, that he knew that the stream on which he was 
camped was not the Red River, meaning the Canadian, 
but was the Rio del Norte, which, though known by 
several other names, is what we now call the Rio Grande, 
and was the boundary line between Texas and the United 
States. The officer in command stated that the Governor 
of New Mexico had ordered him to offer Pike mules, 
horses, money, or whatever he might need to conduct him 
to the head of the Red River, and requested Pike to visit 
the Governor at Santa Fe. Pike at first; declined to go 
without his whole command, but after a time was per- 
suaded to go to Santa Fe, leaving two men in the post to 
meet the Sergeant and his party, and to convey to them 
his orders to come to Santa Fe. 
Naturally Pike did not wish to resist this invitation, 
or to -be put in the position of committing hostilities on 
the foreign soil which he had invaded, since his orders 
did not commit him to any such course. Having made the 
error of entering the territory of another power, he 
thought it better to explain matters, rather than to com- 
mit an act which might involve his country in war. His 
compliance with the request of the Spanish officer seemed 
to be received by them with great satisfaction ; but, he 
says, "it appeared to be different with my men, who 
wished to have 'a little dust,' as they expressed them- 
selves, and were likewise fearful of treachery." After 
making the necessary preparations, and leaving orders for 
Sergeant Meek, Pike set out with the Spaniards to their 
camp on the Rio- del Norte, and thence to Santa Fe. 
His passage through the country was an interesting one, 
and everywhere he was treated with the greatest kindness 
and hospitality by the people. At the pueblo of San Juan 
he met the man Baptiste La Lande, who professed to be 
an American, and endeavored to learn from Pike some- 
thing of his journeying and his purpose; but Pike, sus- 
pecting his designs, and after a little talk satisfying him- 
self as to what they were, had the man shut in a room, 
and ihreatened him with death if he did not confess his 
perfidy. La Lande was greatly frightened, and declared 
that he had been ordered by the Government to find out 
everything possible about Pike. 
Not only did the common people treat Pike's men with 
great kindness and hospitality, but the priests and those of 
the better class were courteous, cordial, and very much 
interested in the explorer. 
Santa Fe was reached March 3. It then had a supposed 
population of 4,500 souls, most of whom, we may imagine, 
turned out to see the Americans. Pike's visit with the 
Governor was brief. He denied that Robinson was at- 
tached to his party, excusing himself to himself on the 
ground that Robinson was a volunteer, and could not 
properly be said to be one of his command. The 
Governor's reception was haughty and unfriendly. Pike 
bore himself with great dignity, and wasted no words. 
At a, later interview that day, his papers were examined 
by the Governor; and after they had been read his man- 
ner changed, and he became much more cordial. Pike's 
trunk was locked and the key given to him, the trunk to 
be put in charge of an officer, who was instructed to 
escort him to Chihuahua, where he was to appear before 
the Commandant-General. That night he dined with the 
Governor, and received from him money for the expenses 
of himself and men as far as Chihuahua. 
The story of the march from Santa Fe to Chihuahua is 
interesting. Not far from Albuquerque they met Dr. 
Robinson. He was hardly recognized by Pike, for he was 
fat, sleek, and well looking, as different as possible from 
that Robinson who had left the camp on the headwaters 
of the Rio del Norte, "pale, emaciated, with uncombed 
locks and beard of eight months' growth, but with fire, 
Unsubdued enterprise, and fortitude." 
The party crossed the Rio Grande at El Paso del Norte, 
then a great crossing place for travelers north and south, 
and just over the river from our present Texas town of 
El Paso, situated on one of the great transcontinental 
railroads. 
Chihuahua was reached April 2, and Pike immediately 
had an interview with the Governor, who treated him with 
reasonable consideration. Almost the _ whole month of 
April was passed here, and during this time Pike was 
entertained by the people of the town, among whom, we 
may infer, he was regarded partly in the light of hero, 
and partly in the light of a curiosity. On one occasion he 
was warned by the Governor that he spoke too freely with 
regard to religion, government, and other matters, to 
which he made a very free response, justifying himself 
for whatever he had done. Pike left Chihuahua April 
28. He had become suspicious that there was danger 
that his private notes would be taken from him, so he took 
his small note-books and concealed them in the barrels 
of the guns of his men. It was now May, the weather 
growing very warm and dry; and sometimes as they 
marched they suffered from lack of water. Almost every- 
where Pike continued to be received with great kindness 
by the people, both in the towns and by the rich haciendados, 
whose ranchos were passed in the country. He frequently 
met men of English, Irish, and American birth, most of 
whom were kind to him; and, on one occasion, conversed 
gladly with an American whom he shortly afterward 
learned to be a deserter from the United States Army. 
This made him very indignant, and he sent word to the 
proprietor of the house where they were stopping that if 
this deserter appeared at another meal all the Americans 
would decline to eat. His firmness brought an apology 
from the host, who took steps that the deserter should not 
again appear. 
The month of June was spent in journeying through 
Texas, eastward, to the borders of Louisiana. Pike speaks 
in the warmest terms of the two Governors, Cordero and 
Herrara, whom he -met at San Antonio. They, and all 
. the other Spaniards whom he met in Texas, were kind 
to him. On the first of July the party reached Natchi- 
toches about 4 P. M. "Language cannot express 
the gayety of my heart when I once more beheld the 
standard of my country waved aloft. All hail !' cried I, 
'the ever sacred name of country, in which is embraced 
FOHKST AND_ STREAM, 
that of kindred, friends, and every other tie which, is dear 
to the soul of man !'" 
It was in August, 1806, while he was on his way west- 
ward, on this second expedition, that Pike was promoted 
to be a captain, and his promotion to a majority followed 
soon after his return. With successive promotions in 
1809, he became lieutenant-colonel, and with the coming 
of the war of 1812, Pike, now a colonel, was sent to guard 
the northern frontier. There was some fighting, but not 
much; but in 1813, while leading an attack on Fort York 
—now Toronto — he was killed by the explosion of the 
magazine, which the retreating enemy had fired. As an 
eye-witness said: The Governor's house, with some 
smaller buildings, formed a square at the center battery, 
and under it the grand magazine, containing a large quan- 
tity of powder, was situated. As there were only two or 
three guns at this battery, and it but a short distance from 
the garrison, the troops did not remain in it, but retreated 
to the latter. When the Americans, commanded by one of 
their best generals, Pike, reached this small battery, in- 
stead of pressing forward, they halted, and the general sat 
down on one of the guns ; a fatal proceeding, for, in a few 
minutes, his advance guard, consisting of about 300 men 
and himself, were blown into the air by the explosion of 
the grand magazine. 
"* * * I heard the report, and felt a tremendous mo- 
tion in the earth, resembling the shock of an earthquake ; 
and, looking toward the spot, I saw an immense cloud 
ascend into the air. I was not aware at the moment what 
it had been occasioned by, but it had an awfully grand 
effect; at first it was a great confused mass of smoke, 
timber, men, earth, etc., but as it arose, in a most majestic 
manner, it assumed the shape of a vast balloon. When 
the whole mass had ascended to a considerable height, 
and the force by which the timber, etc., were impelled up- 
wards became spent, the latter fell from the cloud and 
spread over the surrounding plain." 
Struck by a fragment of rock, Pike was mortally 
wounded. As he was being taken on board the flag-ship 
SAN MIGUEL CHURCH, SANTA FE. 
Built in 1582 (some say 1545). Roof destroyed by the Pueblo 
Indians in 1680; restored in 1692, and re-roofed as now seen in 1887. 
Photo, 1902, by A. D. McCandless, 
Madison, he heard the cheering on the shore. He asked 
what it meant, and was told that the Stars and Stripes 
were being hoisted over the captured fort. A little later 
the captured British flag was brought to him ; he motioned 
to have it put under his head, and soon after this had been 
done he died. 
It is a melancholy commentary on the shortness of 
human fame that to-day the number of Americans who 
know who Pike was is very small. Few men have done 
more than he for his country. Few men in their time 
have attracted more attention. Pike's name has been 
fastened to mountains, counties, cities, villages, and even 
to islands, rivers, and bays ; and while, as Dr. Coues sug- 
gests, it may well enough be that not all these are named 
after Pike the explorer, yet we may be sure that the en- 
thusiasm of the people for Pike at the time of his death, 
and for some time afterward, led to the giving his name 
to many natural features of the land, and to many politi- 
cal divisions within the States. After all, Pike's most 
impressive and most enduring monument must always re- 
main the superb mountain which bears his name. If Pike 
did not discover this, "the grim sentinel of the Rockies," 
which towers 14,147 feet above the sea, at least he was one 
of the first Americans to see it. He calls it, fitly, the 
Grand Peak. _ Nearly fourteen years later, during Major 
Long's expedition to the Rocky Mountains, it was named 
James Peak; but this name, though often mentioned in 
books, did not long endure, and the name Pike's Peak, first 
used some time during the decade between 1830 and 1840 
— for example in Latrobe's "Rambler in America" — is now 
firmly established, and will ever remain the mountain's 
designation. 
The death of Pike at the early age of 34, so soon after 
he had attained the summit of his ambition, the rank of 
general, and at the moment when the force under his 
command had won a notable victory, seems very pathetic ; 
and yet, after all, may not this have been a happy fate? 
For we cannot tell what sorrows and disappointments a 
longer life might have brought to him. It seems almost 
as though he may have had a premonition of the fate in 
store for him, since, in his last letter to his father, written 
just before he set out on his expedition, he writes as 
follows :■ 
"I embark to-morrow in the fleet at Sackett's Harbor, 
at the head of a column of 1,500 choice troops, on a secret 
expedition. If success attends my steps, honor and glory 
await my name; if defeat, still shall it be said we died 
like brave men, and conferred honor, even in death, on 
the American name. 
"Should I be the happy mortal destined to turn the scale 
of war, will you not rejoice, O my father? May heaven 
be propitious, and smile on the cause of my country. But 
if we are destined to fall, may my fall be like Wolfe's — 
to sleep in the arms of victory." 
It was so that Pike fell asleep. 
Geo. Bird Grinnell. 
[to be continued.] 
Life in the Woods. — XIV, 
The Joys of the Hunter, 
In the preceding pages I have endeavored to give in 
brief some of the incidents in the experience of a hunting 
party while on a trip of a few weeks in the pine woods 
of the north, and while I have, doubtless, taxed your 
patience some, I am yet loath to leave the subject giving 
the impression that the things I have described are the 
only attractions of such a trip, for such is not the case. 
There are many other things that go to make the life of 
a hunter enjoyable and profitable when taken as a means 
of rest and relaxation from the manifold cares of busi- 
ness. The true sportsman understands that to kill and 
bag game is not the chief end of an extended hunt. If 
he does not know it, he is not a true sportsman in any 
sense of the word. To kill, to maim, to see the red 
blood flow, and to see a brute struggling in the agonies 
of death, or staggering with pain, is not the real desire of 
the real sportsman. To be sure, he glories in success 
and in the circle of boon companions likes to tell of his 
triumphs. But if this be all, he is little better than a 
brute, though perhaps he may lack the power to express 
the real influence that inspires him, or may be unable to 
comprehend the secret power that moves. Primitive man 
was a wild man with a love for the woods and the 
prairies, with an inborn love of nature, but without the 
developed power of expressing his admiration. Civilized 
man, through all the various processes by which he_ has 
reached his present state of development, has not entirely 
lost this inherited trait. Take an Indian and introduce 
him to civilization, and if he retains any of his manhood 
how long is it before the love for the old wild life preys 
upon him, until, under its influence, he steals away to his 
old haunts, full of discomfort as they may seem to us? 
I have known a half breed who was an exceptionally 
fine engineer and good, all-round mechanic. He could get 
work at good pay at any time around the mines, but he 
could not be relied upon; for, after a few weeks' steady 
application, without warning, he would disappear, and 
when next heard from would be leading a perfectly 
savage life in the woods .with a band of full blooded 
Indians. 
I say that it is not strange, then, that civilized man 
likes to hunt, and craves now and then for the life which 
only a sojourn in the woods can give him, but I repeat 
it is not the desire to kill and possess that alone animates 
him. It is on such trips that "he holds communion with 
nature in her visible form." There are the great forests 
filled with strange sounds, some sweet and soothing, 
some grand and inspiring, and some terrible in their in- 
tensity. Who has stood and listened to the wind mur- 
muring in the pine tree tops? So gentle that it seems 
barely to kiss the imperial tips, and yet, like a chord in a 
responsive breast, they vibrate to every touch, and sing 
and sigh until, to the ear attuned to catch the strains, 
they tell ^of "song. Wait and listen and they will sing to 
you of love, not only that which coy maid and amorous 
youth delight in, but that of home, of family, of country, 
and of all that fills the sanctuaries of everyday life. Wait 
and listen, and as they increase in power they will tell 
you of the passions and ambitions that animate us all. 
They will make you feel the power of those influences 
which act as the mainspring of deeds of courage, of acts 
of self sacrifice, and are the source of heroic motives. 
Wait and listen and they will speak to you of the sor- 
rows of life, of the phases of sadness through which 
every soul must pass. ' They will tell "why come those 
tears," and if you heed them they will teach you that 
suffering is but the payment for greater enjoyment. Be 
in the great woods when storms gather above, when 
lightning darts here and there and thunder crashes on 
every side, when the furies of the air chase here and 
there seeking some thing to devour, and the sounds of 
the wind will convince you that there is a power far 
greater than that of man, to which even the imperial will 
must bow. But greater than all, they will show you that 
after the storm comes the calm, more bright,' more 
radiant, more beautiful than before. 
Stand by the babbling brook and listen to the water as 
it bubbles and falls and sings to itself as it passes along, 
and tell me if there is any sweeter music for the human 
ear save that of the human voice. See where the wide, 
deep stretches are which mirror on their surface every 
detail of tree and form around, and tell me can artist do 
such perfect work? See the leaves float lazily through 
the air to meet that placid surface and drift along as 
proudly as the galleys of the Roman Emperors, yet soon 
to reach the rapids, there to be buffeted around by the 
swift current. See the kingfisher dart with swift flight to 
pluck a minnow from the stream, and hear his piping 
scream of anger as disappointed he flies upward to some 
lofty limb. See the active mink as he prowls along the 
bank; how his beady little eyes snap; quick of motion, a 
bold aggressive little fellow, conscious of his strength, 
yet wary as a fox. See that insect borne down by the 
wind to the bosom of the stream only to be gulped 
down by some ravenous trout which, like a flash, seizes 
his prey and is gone. Watch the clear water, ever mov- 
ing, never tiring, flowing, flowing, day after day, per- 
petual. Where do its drops come from, and where do 
they go, and what do they see ? Would it not make a 
mighty tale? 
See the shadows in the woods. The sunlight gleaming 
among the great tree trunks casts strange pictures now 
and then. Sometimes it is a colossus reaching out with 
mighty hands to seize some pigmy as it flees. Now it is 
some castellated pile which charms the sense of architec- 
